Brandon Scott Sworn In As The Youngest Mayor In Baltimore And He Did It Style

When you look good, you feel good, and you do good!

Brandon Scott was recently sworn in as the youngest Baltimore mayor in over a century, Blavity reports. 

Scott was elected to the city council in 2011, becoming the youngest member to be appointed to the committee, eventually becoming president of the council in 2019. During his tenure, Scott launched the first-ever legislative initiative to build healthier and safer neighborhoods and re-invest in the city’s youth. He worked to reduce Baltimore’s rapid violence, the city’s homicide rate being one of the highest in the country. Scott also stressed the importance of defunding the police and reallocating funds towards community-based agencies.

The 36-year-old then entered the race for mayor, running his campaign on racial inequity, bringing professionalism back to the city’s government, and combating the violence. Scott believes gun violence is a “public health crisis” and plans to address the origin of weapons in the city, creating strategies to lessen group violence, exploring how the city deals with substance abuse, trauma, housing opportunity, and other social ills contributing to the problem. As one of the youngest mayors in Baltimore City history, Scott knows he has much work but is eager to begin building the foundation for a better city.

“We cannot accept this as normal in our city. We must also understand that these dual emergencies of violence and this pandemic exacerbate the underlying and obvious inequities facing residents of Baltimore. I am humbled by the task before us, and I have hope, but I am not naive to the challenges we face,” Scott said. “Baltimore must reallocate its budget away from the current dependence on the police department. We must diversify our investments into agencies that focus on proactively developing our young people and communities,” 

The Park Heights native also addressed power inequities from the mayoral office. For years, the mayor has controlled most of the city’s spending and reserves absolute authority over state and federal funding. Scott plans to relinquish some of that power while also creating checks and balances in the city council to reduce the number of city council votes needed to override a veto and allow council members to allocate money as they see fit.

During his swearing-in ceremony, Scott sported a crisp afro and fresh fade, clarifying his intentions and managing expectations while expressing his excitement to get to work.

“Am I going to wipe away hundreds of years of inequity in Baltimore? No. But someone has to be the person willing to put the bricks at the foundation of a better city,” said Scott.

Congratulations, Mayor Scott!